


I Followed a Fox, Now The World is Ending

by pajamassquirrell



Category: Original Work
Genre: Amnesia, Foxes, How Do I Tag, I'm Bad At Tagging, Insanity, Other, POV First Person, Unreliable Narrator, Work In Progress, conversational, i haven't decided where this is going, i'm pretty sure my narrator is adopted, im bad at titles, im not sure where this is going, magic???, narrator is POC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-02-05 15:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12796992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pajamassquirrell/pseuds/pajamassquirrell
Summary: Blaire is nineteen year old kid joe smo that was thrust into a world that he wasn't ready for. Not athletic, college kid that chose the most predictably common career path that requires college education-- a pediatrician. Blah blah blah... Point is, he never asked for this.





	1. Fox Forest

**Author's Note:**

> This work is just a product of a long writers block. I just picked up my laptop and started typing. I don't have much a clue what I'm doing. Usually, I plan my writing out carefully. I definitely haven't written in first person in years. I'm just trying to write in a style I find easiest to read. Right now, I'm just hashing it out. Blaire knows what's going on, I certainly don't.

I know you’re supposed to start these fictional stories with some incredible hook. But this isn’t fiction, this is my life, and I am not a writer. Before I start this, you have to know: I am not crazy. Here’s my amazing hook (I tried): the end of the world started in my backyard.  
Ooo… Enticing.   
Being a nineteen year old, barely functional child, I wasn’t ready to spend the rest of my life fighting. But is anyone really that ready to have their world turned inside out?  
I suppose it was worse for me seeing as I was not at all athletic. I never was. I tried, I really did. I was always the worst in sports. Okay… so, I kinda didn’t try. I was too awkward and sick of always sticking out. It’s okay, I’m healthy--I really am. I just don’t have the endurance for all that. I’m getting off track. (Heh, it’s funny cause track was one of the sports I tried.)  
Anyway, the end of the world started in my backyard. I loved walking on my family’s property even with my poor endurance. The air was always more breathable there.  
I still lived with my parents; attending the community college, working on a degree in medicine. Or… trying to. Medicine was a common career path, I figured that my family would be pleased. They wouldn’t tell me to my face if they were disappointed in me. At least, not on these types of things. My parents’ property was “out there” but we--they didn’t own much land. I was trespassing, naturally. As long as you didn’t try to walk up to people’s houses, you’d usually be fine.   
Now that I think of it, the end of the world didn’t really start in my backyard.   
The whole time I was there, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t alone. I didn’t think much of it. I’d felt that way plenty of times before. I was very paranoid. Once, I had been out during hunting season and ended up darting out of the forest because of what I thought was footsteps. It had been a squirrel. If I listened closely, I could hear the light footsteps crunching the autumn leaves. I wasn’t going to allow myself to get scared of that anymore. This time, though, I heard something like distant muttering. Probably just the birds, right?   
A fiery orange tail, orange like the color construction workers wear, slipped under the bush. I went around it, avoiding the foliage. It was a bright orange… cat? The animal turned as if looking over its shoulder. It was a fox. I had seen plenty of things in those woods but not once had I seen a fox. I should know, I spent much of my childhood trying to find them. In my elementary school years, I found pictures of foxes in animal books and became obsessed.   
It was an Alice and Wonderland type thing when I followed the fox. The fox moved swiftly but was in no rush to get anywhere. If elementary memory served correctly, foxes are not native.   
Strangest of all about this fox was that it was not at all disturbed by my presence. It’s not like it didn’t know I was there. I was the exact opposite of stealthy. Still, it gave me no attention. I didn’t think about it too hard--for all I knew, it was deaf.   
I hadn’t noticed it at the time but the fox was leading me out of the tree line. I shouldn’t’ve followed that damn rabbit… I mean fox. Alice and Wonderland deja vu. The fox turned around and faced me like a dog begging for food. Looking at him… it? I never know what to call animals.   
Besides the point.   
The fox looked like the mentor from Kung Fu Panda except not humanized.   
“Hello Blaire.”   
The voice came from every angle. It was soft but powerful. I remember feeling very weak and the blood draining from my face. I had thought I was having what Christians call a “divine experience” or something like that. I wouldn’t know. I don’t talk to Christians. In my opinion, it’s a fancy term made up to validate minor moments of insanity. Basically, I thought I was going insane. I felt as if something completely foreign had invaded my brain.   
“Blaire,” the voice repeated.  
The sound of it bounced against the walls of my skull. I was whirling around looking in all directions for the source. The fox--the creature came forward pawing at my muddy boot once. It struck me that the movements mirrored those of a feline because foxes are canines.   
My head jerked downward.  
My elementary school best friend’s twin brother, Caleb, once compared me to a chicken once because of the way my head jerks. I’ve helped neighbors with their chickens in the past and I can confirm, from my observations, that they don’t actually move like that.   
I sunk into the animal’s amber-eyed gaze.   
“Blaire,” the voice boomed again.   
This was worse than a divine experience, I was truly going insane. The thing’s mouth wasn’t even moving. But they were the source of the voice. I was trembling. I became the world’s axis, everything spinning around me. What happened next, I’ll remember forever.   
“Blaire,” the creature said. “You aren’t the one I came for but as long as you’re here, you’re coming with me.”   
Not exactly the hero’s call to action.   
The creature didn’t bother waiting for a response and began to walk away, tail flickering behind.   
Even today, I don’t know why I followed.


	2. Like the Smoke from a Cigarette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaire almost dies. Or something... There was no way of telling what could have happened because it didn't. He also said he wasn't a writer. If that's true, he's getting much better. A secret talent.

In some, hyperactivity equals anxiety. For me, the opposite was true. I had never been so still. Even then, I was walking. There was no words spoken and for once that didn’t bother me.   
The road ahead of us stretched endlessly. Should I have stopped, I would have got that feeling of the world stretching out that acrophobics get whenever they look down from a cliff. Once, I had been struck with that feeling on vacation. I wasn’t up high or anything, I wasn’t up high at all, I was in a pool next to our hotel room. Our hotel was tall, not a skyscraper, but still taller than it was wide. I looked up and nearly puked into the chlorinated water.   
That day, I had been beyond tired. My legs kept moving, however. It reminded me of motions of a steam train with the piston and the wheels and the bar between. Chug, chug, chug. Actually, that wasn’t the sound it made at all but I’m not sure what onomatopoeia could describe the sound of my muddy boots clomping over the pavement and crunching on the autumn leaves.   
Eventually, the mud on my boots had either caked onto my boots or became brown smudges on black road. I had become entranced by the careless swishing of the creature’s tail. It never seemed to stop moving. It didn’t wag either it wasn’t like a dog’s at all.   
I can’t say when the scene around me began to change. We kept moving and when I knew we were nearing a river that we’d have to wade through, it wasn’t there. The lighting had dimmed slowly enough that I didn’t notice the difference until long after it begun.   
I could have sworn that somebody had placed rose-colored glasses on my face. My entire world was tinted red. The sky was purple. The trees now looked dark and barren, not a single leaf in sight. Not even on the ground. At this point, I stood unmoving planted in place. Briefly, I made eye contact with the mystery creature. The world wasn’t tinted red. The fiery orange fur had not shifted a shade.   
A great screeching tore through the valley. I swear this was real. This felt more real than anything had ever felt in my life. This place was more real than anything I’d ever experienced. The bodies of the swooping mass of birds were outlined so clearly. Red eyes pierced through the darkness and straight through me. I must’ve looked so dumb with my head lifted to the sky mouth wide.   
A gesture of the head by the fox and I began my stride. To my own reality, this place was as detailed as a painting. Painters always seemed to add in more colors than the untrained human eye could see among normal life. The path ahead was one that never did end. The trail stretched on for what could be a thousand miles or three steps. I hadn’t seen a horizon so smooth in anything but animated sunrises like the Lion King. The road stretched forever just like the trees. But forever could, in fact, be only a minute. The air felt so clear here. In my nostrils it was so breathable feeling so light in my lungs.   
The quality of the air remained unaffected by the fog rising from our swiftly moving feet. The foot clouds remained at the edges of the road as it rose. Only occasionally did a wisp lick back or dance on the line. The air sent a chill on my flesh but there was a heat in my body shielding me. Even the fog here was alien to me. It wasn’t like the cotton balls, thick and fluffy that would coat your clothes with dew on a morning run. It looked like the smoke swirling from a cigarette. Or a girl’s hair floating around her head underwater.   
The creature guide was picking up the pace.   
Something about the fog felt dangerous and my guide’s increasing unease didn’t help neither. I felt the overwhelming urge to throw myself into the fog and like the cartoons it would catch me. Or perhaps it’d swallow me whole. It wouldn’t be bad though. It’d be like babies in the womb calm, relaxed, not a care. I still walked forward but my neck was twisted so the right side of the path was at my full attention. The fog was invading the trail now the tendrils licking at my face a disembodied voice whispering sweet nothings in my ears. It held a tight grip around me. The air was thick in my windpipe and my breaths came short and quick.   
It lured me in and slowed me down. It made promises. Impossible promises that it was sure to keep. I’d leap into its open arms and fall into the deep. I’d stay suspended in air and I was already there. The fox tugged at my pants sleeve with their teeth. I had to move but no matter how they tried to force me to, I couldn’t budge. I wouldn’t budge.   
The fox was saying something, telling me to move my feet. They called me weak.   
I had finally opened my eyes and realized that it had tried to lull me to sleep. I pulled myself away and it made a quick retreat. I began to cry, how could that world it had shown me be a lie? The tears falling down my face could only be seen, not felt.   
The fox-like creature pulled me away, I had seen enough for the day. I blacked out. Still present in reality, still able to follow and obey but my mind was shut down. I remember nothing of it to this day. It was like a weird hypnosis, a trance. It didn’t end until I peed my pants. Just kidding. I didn’t pee my pants. Truly, there was no way of telling since there is a complete gap of memory where the rest of the day was supposed to be. If that had happened, nobody told me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a bit carried away with rhyming. Don't know what the fog does. Meh


	3. I peed my pants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He pees his pants. Did you hear me? HE PEES HIS PANTS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He doesn't pee his pants.

I woke up completely confused. Of course I did. All the shit I’d seen that day and a seemingly permanent gap in my story; it wasn’t surprising. It sounds totally cliche but I thought it had been a dream. I really did. It made sense. Especially with the whole memory gap. I dreamt then fell into a dreamless sleep. Obviously. The bed felt like my own. Black sheets, the one squishy pillow and the firm one that I hugged. Someone had stolen my bed.   
There was no alarms so while I peaked my eye out, I stayed snuggled up. But then I had to pee. Like… really badly. If I had peed my pants, it would have been right then. I threw the blankets off of me and leaped out of the bed. Something was definitely not right. The walls were orange. What? Was this room Halloween themed? My walls would sooner be hot pink than orange.   
There was no time to think about that. I had to pee. The door wasn’t in the same place either. I kicked something really soft and I jolted. I was convinced that I had kicked my childhood chihuahua. Yeah… he had been dead for about four years at that time but I had just woken up. Who isn’t disoriented first thing in the morning?  
Clearly, yesterday hadn’t been a dream. It wasn’t a chihuahua named Bora that I had kicked but another pet-sized critter that was yet to be identified that was sleeping in a cat bed.  
“I’m so sorry!” I yelped.   
With that I leapt over and ran through the door. I was immediately outside and it was cold and there was nothing on my feet. The leaves were extra crunchy due to a layer of ice. I hardly cared, I had a bladder to relieve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that it was short


	4. Nakoli

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not finished with this one but I'm going to post what I've got.

While I’m sure you’d love to read about me peeing outside at a temperature that breath freezes in midair, Nakoli said that not every detail is necessary and some censorship is. And as you should know, what Nakoli says goes. Never will you ever meet someone so persuasive. Intimidation and/or charm always gets people to do what she wants. That sounded bad. Really, it’s not. It comes quite helpful. It sounds like a villainous trait but--   
You’ll see when you meet her. All I can tell you now is that you have Nakoli to thank for this magnificent telling of my adventure. Adventures?  
Anyway, I returned through the door feeling much better than before. A stupid move but I was cold. I could excuse it on being in the middle of nowhere but I could have just peed off a balcony for all I knew. The whole trance thing hadn’t completely worn off. My mind couldn’t take in my surroundings all that well.   
I gave such a huge sigh of relief when I shut that door. The creature sat proudly at the foot of the bed staring at me. Like the horses that stood on the hood of old mustangs or the mermaid on the mast of the ship. I had been rather startled by the scene. My lips pressed together and my eyebrows flew to Mars and my eyes nearly popped out of my skull. If I remembered correctly, this creature could talk and that wasn’t exactly a soothing thought.   
“Good morning, Blaire.”  
There it was. There was something so kind and so stern about that voice that, presumably, only spoke in my mind. Almost motherly. Though it feels wrong to say that because my mother wasn’t like that. Visiting friends, some moms were.   
“Good morning,” I said back. There was a pause. I felt as if I was expected to say something more. “Yoooou..?” I had no name and I didn’t know to use “Sir” or “Ma’am”.   
“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nakoli. How do you pronounce that? I just smashed two names together cause I couldn't decide.


	5. Chapter 5

“Asmira,” the creature filled in. “Are you quite alright?”  
No, I wasn’t alright. I was feeling rather lightheaded. I had no idea what was going on. Nothing new really, but this was different. Okay?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really up for criticism. I'm basically only posting it in hopes that I'll get opinions from people not tainted by the fact that they know me. Be honest.


End file.
